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42 news posts in Frontiers in Nutrition

Health

31 Oct 2016

How your diet can influence your environmental impact

By Hedwig Ens, Frontiers   The impact of our dietary choices on the global phosphorus footprint shouldn’t be neglected, recent research in Frontiers in Nutrition shows.  A shift towards a plant-based diet may be an undervalued solution toward decreasing our environmental impact and attaining phosphorus sustainability. Phosphorus is an element essential for all living beings and is thus critical in food production. Mined phosphate rock is a non-renewable global resource that is nowadays becoming increasingly scarce which poses a severe problem to the farming industry: it needs phosphorus in the form of fertilizers to sustain crop productivity. Crops have two entries into the human food chain: direct consumption or indirect consumption by rearing animals which can be converted to human food. Different food types therefore require different amounts of phosphorus in their production. One kg of phosphorus can for example be used to either produce 3333 kg of starch roots (e.g. potatoes) or 16 kg of beef. The loss of phosphorus to waterways, whether from agricultural fields through runoff or urban sewage through human excreta, can cause severe water quality degradation. This leads to eutrophication, harmful algal blooms, and impairment of our drinking water, recreational areas, and fisheries. As the […]

Frontiers news

29 Sep 2016

Open for submissions: New Specialty Section Obesity

by Victor Kouassi, Frontiers Under the leadership of Prof. Katherine Samaras  of St Vincent’s Hospital and the Garvan Institute of Medical Research, Sydney, the journals; Frontiers in Endocrinology, Frontiers in Public Health and Frontiers in Nutrition have launched a new specialty section on Obesity. The section is now open for submissions. The Obesity Specialty Section is intended to reflect the multidisciplinary research and strategies developed in this subject from “champions from every paradigm of science, clinical practice, public health, economics and policy” states Specialty Chief Editor Prof. Samaras. With figures from the WHO showing a doubling worldwide of obese individuals since 1980, obesity has rapidly become an issue deserving of immense attention in countries of all levels of income. The need for faster and widespread dissemination of research findings to mitigate and tackle this issue are increasingly in demand. In her recently published Specialty Grand Challenge article, this threat is described as an “Obesity Armageddon” which can be dodged by encouraging “innovative science in obesity, to integrate scientific effort between the disciplines”. Asked on what attracted her to launch this section in Frontiers, Dr. Samaras said, “The Frontiers series of journals are at the cutting edge. The process of Peer Review is innovative, […]

Featured news

15 Aug 2016

Sewage sludge as a sustainable fertilizer

by Hedwig Ens, Frontiersin.org Ever thought of putting sewage on your plants? Scientists say thermally conditioned sewage sludge serves as an excellent fertilizer to improve soil properties. This was recently published in the open-access journal Frontiers in Nutrition. The major advantage over commercial fertilizers? Sustainable re-use of essential and finite phosphorus resources. Phosphorus is a key nutrient for all living beings. When deficient in the diet, it severely compromises human health, and when deficient in agriculture, it restricts crop productivity. Without phosphorus, there can be no food production. As the source of phosphorus is non-renewable phosphate rocks, there is a strong need for increased recycling to ensure phosphorus security. Efficient use and reduced environmental dissemination of phosphorus throughout the food system is needed to secure the ability to feed a growing global population. As technological improvements increased the phosphorus content of sewage sludge, it now is a readily available alternative to commercial fertilizers in agriculture. To assess its effectiveness, Andry Andriamananjara from the University of Antananarivo (Madagascar) and his colleagues used a phosphorus radiotracer technique to measure the availability of phosphorus for plants in thermally conditioned sewage sludge. They grew ryegrass in pots filled with soil that underwent isotopic P-labelling, […]